Egypt day 1: Tel Aviv to Aswan via Cairo

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This is the first kosher tour from Israel to Egypt. Our day started early meeting the group and our tour leader Cindy Kline at Ben Gurion airport at 9.30am. We were travelling on a tour entitled “In the footsteps of the Exodus” with scholar-in-residence Rabbi Professor Joshua Berman. Rabbi Berman is professor of Tanach at Bar-Ilan university, Tel Aviv and has served on the international advisory committee of the Museum of Bible, Washington D.C. and his pioneering work on archaeological evidence for the Exodus has been featured in the Wall Street Journal.

As our flight was not until 1300 we hung around the airport with our friends Ellie and Steve. Our short 1.5 hour flight to Cairo was uneventful and then we had a four hour wait at Cairo airport for the 1.5 hour flight to Aswan.

Once at Aswan we picked up our cases and met our Egyptian guide Migo and the local tour company director John. On the coach Migo gave a brief guide about Aswan until we reached our hotel, the Tolip.



Aswan: population 2.5 million

Main industries: tourism and camel trading.

Aswan comes from the Egyptian word Sun meaning market. It was a central market for Egypt in the north and Sudan in the south.

Currency: Egyptian pound. 15 EGP pounds = $1 and 20 EGP pounds = £1.

Aswan is the most southern strategic city in Egypt on the Nile. The Nile flows from south to north. The Nile flows 200 miles to the north and starts 100 miles south in the Sudan.



To get to our hotel in downtown Aswan we had to cross the old dam. The building of the old dam was started in 1898 after the occupation of Egypt by the British. It was opened in 1902. The architect was Sir William Willocks. It was not producing enough hydroelectricity and so a new dam was proposed. But it was not until 1960 that there was enough money to build the new one called the High Dam which was completed in 1971.

More information will follow after our tour tomorrow during the day.



We arrived at the Aswan Tolip hotel to a surprise welcome. All bags went through an x-ray machine (standard practice for all public places) and, we were told that, accompanying us every day would be one or two Egyptian security guys, again standard in the country!

Room keys were distributed and we had a chance to refresh after a long travel day with its two short flights and considerable waiting around.

We gathered in our designated dining level which included a prayer corner where we said the evening ma'ariv prayer before dinner. We had been allocated the Panorama restaurant on the 7th floor of the hotel where there was an ante-room which we used as a shul. From the window of the restaurant we had a panoramic view of the River Nile.

We had a light supper and then went to bed in a very comfortable bed in a deluxe room.
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